This year's edition of Sibiu Cycling Tour, ranked 2.1. category in UCI calendar, led over a prologue and four stages with a lot of climbing in the middle of Transylvanian mountains. The guys from Stradalli – BIKE AID did a freat job throughout the whole week and proofed their ability to act as a real team.
On stage 1 it was Nikodemus Holler who took the place of the selected sprinter Patrick Lechner as he couldn't make it in the bunch to the finsihline due to several technical issues. In the massive sprint Niko showed that he is a very smart rider and finished on 10th position.
The goal was to ride for Niko as a captin in the GC and the team showed that this should not only be a plan. As a 13 man break went away in the beginning of queen-stage number 2 over 213 Kilometers, the gap increased rapidly as no team wanted to do the work of controlling the bunch. After the gap still increased and reached 11 Minutes, the guys from Stradalli – BIKE AID took over the responsibility and chased the group down to seven minutes at 40 Kilometers to go. But then a shock: crash! Niko Holler! His bike is broken and also his knee injured! Worst case! After a hard fight and several times of stopping due to his pain, Nikodemus Holler finished in thelast group and remained in the race.
All the hard work for nothing? No, he didn't want to let the work of his team mates being unpaid and fought back on stage 4 with another great 7th place. The whole team showed a good performance and the will to ride for his captain without a doubt. Only the crash has left a little scratch on a good picture of the week in Romania.
